Perforated record controlled machine



March 15, 1938. D, LAKE 2,111,117

PERFORATED RECORD CONTROLLED MACHINE Filed March 20, 1934 Patented Mar. 15, 1938 UNITE STATES PATENT orncs PEBFORATED RECORD CONTROLLED MACHINE Clair D. Lake, Binghamton, N. Y., asslgnor to-lntanaticnal Business Machines Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application March 1934, Serial No. 716,465

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nature by reducing the burning of the contacting parts.

Another object is to decrease failure of the sensing brushes to close a circuit through the perforations in the records. 1

Another object is to produce an analyzing or sensing device adapted to overcome the eilects of dust particles which may tend to prevent the strands of the sensing brush from contacting with the cooperating conductor.

Referring to the drawing:

Fig. l is a sectional side elevation of a portion of a machine adapted to analyse perforated records while the records are in motion;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary enlarged detail showing a sensing brush and a metallic roller adapted to cooperate with the brush for closing an electric circuit;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional detail, on a 11g. 5 is a detail similar to Fig. 2, slightly modified.

In the drawing, the record cards I are adapted to be fed one at a time by a card picker 2 to feed rollers 3 which carry the card. downwardly, be-

tween the sensing brushes 4 on one side of the card, and a cooperating roller 5 on the other side. The train of gears i which serve to operate the card feeding mechanism also drives a gear 1 which meshes with a gear I attached to the contact roller 5 to cause the latter to turn in a counterclockwise direction as viewed in Figs. 1 and 4.

As shown in Fig. 2, the contacting surface of the roller 5 is provided with grooves 9 out diagonally around the face of the roller, as in the case of screw threads. As the card i feeds downwardly, the brush 4 is held out of contact with the roller 5 until a perforation ll, through the card, passes between the brush and the roller. The brush then reaches through the perforation and engages the roller to close .an electric circu'it for controlling the machine. As the roller "is turningdownwardly,asviewedin Fig. 2, the

strands of wire which make up the brush are pushed over toward one side by the grooves in the surface of the roller. The strands then ride over the raised portion between the grooves as shown at 4a in Fig. 4, and drop into the next adjacent groove. 5 In Figs. 2 and 4, the brushes are shown as made up of closely placed strands of wire. In Fig. 5 the spacing between the several strands is exaggerated and onlya few of the wires are shown in order to show the action of the individual wires. Also, while the long narrow perforation is shown in Fig. 2, a round perforation is shown in the card in Fig. 5.

In Fig. 3 the grooves 9 are shown as rounded. This will permit the individual wires of the brushes to ride gradually up and down the sides of the grooves without losing contact, although this specific shape of groove is not essential. While the grooves are shown as running constantly in one direction, they might be made to cross each other so that the separate wires of the sensing brushes would tend to be separated in both directions. Also other forms of irregularities may be provided on the surface of the roller to cause agitation of the brush wires. In existing machines, where a roller having a smooth surface is employed to cooperate with the sensing brushes 4, the several strands of wire in the brushes tend to follow the same paths repeatedly around the roller. Thus, when sparking tends to take place between the brushes and the roller, burning of the roller occurs along fixed lines. and the wires of the brushes follow these lines. Due to the tendency to crystallize along such lines, the conducting properties of the contacting surfaces are reduced so that the full power of current does not always pass for the full duration of contact through the perforation in the card, and the accuracy of the operation of the machine is hampered. With the contact roller disclosed here, the constant shifting of the wires in the brushes, prevents the burning of fixed lines around the roller and obviates the tendency of the wires of the brushes to follow any such fixed burned lines.

In the operation of machines of this kind, small particles of dust including paper dust are dragged by the brushes along the surface ofthe card and then through the perforation onto the surface of the contact roller. Where the surface 50 of the roller is smooth the brushes tend to drag these particles around the surface of the roller. These particles tend to separate the brush wires from the roller and this in turn tends to draw a spark. Also the dust particles which have 55 lifted the wires off the roller to produce the spark are burned by the spark. This tends to cause fusing of foreign substance in the surface of the roller and impairs the conductivity of the roller. The agitation of the brush wires produced by the grooves or irregularities in the surface of the roller, cause the dust particles to be thrown off, and this reduces sparking and burning on the surface of the roller. In tests, it has been found that where my improved roller is used, a much larger number of cards may be run through the machine before evidence of burning is apparent, than where smooth rollers are used.

While there has been shown and described and pointed out the fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a single modification, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a record analyzing device, a perforation sensing brush comprising a plurality of individual conducting strands, a roller adapted to cooperate with said brush, said roller having an irregular surface adapted to cause agitation of the sensing brush thereby displacing the said strands relatively to each other.

2. In a perforated record analyzing device, a stranded wire brush adapted to reach through perforations in a record, a rotatable roller adapted to be engaged by such brush when it reaches through a perforation, said roller being provided with diagonal grooves around its surface for causing relative lateral movement of the individual strands of the brush.

3. In a device of the class described, a rotatable contact roller, an electric contact brush comprising a plurality of individual conducting strands adapted to reach through perforations in a passing record to engage said roller, and means for causing lateral movement of the brush with respect to the roller to cause the brush to follow an irregular course around the surface of the roller thereby effecting displacement of the said strands with respect to each other.

4. In a record analyzing device, a sensing brush comprising a plurality of strands of wire, a movable contact element cooperating with said brush, and means disposed on said contact element to provide predetermined movements of the said strands with respect to each other.

CLAIR D. LAKE. 

